"… When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to-day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" The Holy Bible
"Many a so-called wise economist ... had not studied past history enough to know that after the greatest advance in history had culminated … the greatest panic in history must follow ... " W. D. Gann

Greece pushes for urgent Europe bailout deal: Greek ministers have launched a concerted effort to persuade European officials to release more bailout money as the government runs out of cash. (The BBC) Greek government takes aim at creditors over stalled bailout talks: Senior official lays blame on disagreements between EU and IMF as economic growth rate forecasts are slashed (The Guardian)

The Trans Pacific Partnership is a corporate hijacking: The former secretary of labor sounds the alarm bell about the Obama administration's newest investment treaty by Robert Reich (Salon) Extreme secrecy eroding support for Obama's trade pact: Classified briefings and bill-readings in basement rooms are making members queasy. (Politico) This Is EVERYTHING You Need To Know About The Trans-Pacific Partnership (The Libertarian Republic)

U.S. presidential hopeful Sanders: Break up the big banks (Reuters) He Won’t Win, So Why Is Bernie Sanders Running? (Newsweek)

Why Elizabeth Warren Makes Bankers So Uneasy, and So Quiet: The rollback of financial regulation is stalled. Income inequality is a campaign issue. Americans are still angry about the financial crisis. Things aren’t shaping up the way the big banks expected, and an important reason is one laser-focused senator from Massachusetts. (Bloomberg)

The aim of this blog is to show (mostly from reports in mainstream respected news sources) that there is reason to believe that both the United States and the global economies remain fragile in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 and that a number of threats exist today that could, if they worsened, bring about economic depression -- not just a minor depression, but a depression worse than the Great Depression. Key threats include excessive risk-taking by financial firms, unchecked by effective regulation; the continued existence of "too big to fail" institutions; and most especially, the amassing of levels of public and private debt which could become unsustainable.